Our Vision

eDiscovery should be strategic, not just tactical. Technology should not be a hurdle, but rather a facilitator and accelerator.

CTRL’s goal is to create resources for lawyers that want to use advanced technology, like artificial intelligence and automation, in their practice. For many, technological unease has created a culture of bare-bones compliance where technology remains a necessary evil and little more than a tactical “means-to-an-en.” Current practice, as evidenced in the literature and case law, focuses more often on the difficulty of information management, review and production, rather than the strategic benefits of technology.

Specifically, most eDiscovery work and discussions about defensible use of technology are focused, first, on collecting, processing, and reviewing documents for production, with fact development and use for the case and client taking a back seat. A strategic use of technology can address all these matter needs at the same time.

Practical and proactive guidance is difficult to find.

Compliance and associated metrics are necessary, but knowledge and learning regarding strategic aims are largely absent from much of the current public discussion, relegated instead to a select few within an industry bubble, or publicized in case law only after traversing a largely reactive ad hoc environment after a dispute has developed. All practitioners (whether outside counsel, in-house lawyers, litigation support professionals, or vendors) must evolve their thinking and develop a better way to handle eDiscovery and document review. Cooperation, transparency, proportionality, and other related principles face significant challenges for current application in the face of continued unease, technical incompetence, and a dearth of basic practical experience.

A better method for advancing legal thinking through the application of eDiscovery and related technologies is needed.

This environment, combined with the financial and efficiency pressures facing modern legal practice, demonstrates the need for “CTRL”—a coalition of technology resources for lawyers. CTRL is an open-source platform for legal technology education and discussion. CTRL develops and organizes guidance on the use and implementation of advanced technology in practice. Guidance comes from the courts in opinions organized by volunteer research attorneys in the case law database and also from the community in the model stipulation. These publications, and the events and meetings that help develop them, are made possible by our sponsors.